St. Catherine Municipal Corporation - Poor Planning in Parochial Road Maintenance

Auditor General's Findings

The Auditor General published a Performance Audit of the Management System for the Maintenance of Parochial Roads (St. Catherine Municipal Corporation) in July 2020.

The audit revealed that the St. Catherine Municipal Corporation (SCMC) could not demonstrate that it provided strategic direction to enable the corporation to achieve its objectives and did not establish medium and long-term goals and performance targets to guide its operation. The input of the public was not sought in determining the strategic direction of the corporation and the prioritization of limited resources, contrary to the Local Government (Financing and Financial Management) Act.

Planning for the management of the parochial road network was deficient in a context where SCMC was unaware of the full extent of the network and condition of the roads under its purview, and did not have a transparent process of determining works to be carried out under the Roads in the Parish, Divisional Allocation and Lengthman programmes.

Further, deficiencies in record keeping limited verification that funds allocated from the Parochial Revenue Fund (PRF) were appropriately spent.

Permanent Secretary (current): Marsha Henry-Martin

Breach Category: Project Management

Permanent Secretary (at breach):

Breach Type: Ineffective Allocation of Resources

Status: Lagging

Last Assessed: December 17, 2020

Year Reported: 2020

Year Resolved:

Recommendation

1. MLGCD should enforce the mandatory submission by SCMC, of strategic plans as required by the Government’s Corporate Governance and Accountability Framework and hold SCMC to account for breaches, given the entity’s use of public funds.

2. Greater emphasis should be placed on ensuring that SCMC has a dynamic inventory system that would assist in providing an up-to-date list of parochial roads.

3. SCMC’s procurement process should ensure that the appropriate contractors are selected and engaged. Consistent with this expectation, SCMC should have the relevant contracts and supporting documents in place to allow for audit trail to be established.

4. SCMC should establish internal controls to reduce the risk of misstatement or inaccurate financial records. This is to ensure that the financial information provided presents a true and fair view of its financial activities.

JAMP Update

JAMP submitted a number of questions to the SCMC via an ATI request and the response, dated December 17, 2020 is accessible at the link below. It details some progress towards fulfilling the Auditor General’s recommendations, including work on preparing a Strategic Plan for the period 2020-2025.

JAMP will continue to follow up on this matter.